I’m a little put-off by the box art, nothing really special about it, just a bunch of pictures of Kratos brooding with a black background. the PS3 logo and read line looks like a futuristic letterhead and sticks out like a soar thumb on the front and kind of ruins the feel of the box art, I suppose that can’t really be avoided though.

I think my biggest problem with the box art is that it doesn’t give the feel of the era the game is from. the box itself looks more like one that would contain a joystick bundle than Pandora’s Box, out of context one might guess it contains a modern era wrestling game, if it weren’t for the swords on the side.

I used a razor to cut the 3 circular sticker seals holding the lid of the box down, I dare not peal them off and risk damaging the art… I might use a little steam later to ensure they’re removed properly.

Opening the box I am even more disappointed…

Personally for me one of the most important aspects of a CE, especially one that that fetches a >$80 price tag and comes in a large box is the un-boxing process.  A lot of companies are paying attention to this. I give kudos to Microsoft as the un-boxing presentation for both the Xbox 360 and the Zune were extremely well thought out, each flap, and wrapper unveiled something special and they thought about what it was you saw when you unveiled it… Bioshock 2 Special Edition paid really close attention to this, each layer of the packing gave you really high quality art work to look at, it focused your attention on the next item in the box and everything felt high quality and, well… special.

Opening the cardboard box revealed uninspiring cardboard, and rather than seeing the neat case, we’re presented with an instruction sheet printed on plane white paper… this is the kind of un-boxing experience if I brought home a new router…

Pandora’s box itself actually looks pretty nice, but as soon as you touch it it feels very cheap. it’s made of plastic and the horns on the lid are rubbery, it looks pretty good in the photos above but all you need to do to capture the feel of this box in a photo is look at the bottom.

Not that I’d expect this to be made out of metal or wood but they did advertise the box design as being “carved” which is completely inaccurate. Perhaps they should have gone with “forged” or “cast” they sound mean and angsty and it’s actually somewhat accurate too.

Now we’re getting to the good stuff, the box looks nice and from here on out I’ll be unveiling all the special content locked inside.

Unfortunately once you slide the lid off you’re presented with more instructions and a big white hunk of cardboard filler, more disappointment. You can’t tell from the way I shot the picture but the text was actually upside down, the lid only slides off one way and I did so in the direction the previous instruction sheet told me so it’s not like I opened it wrong.

If they were really worried about people not being able to figure out how to open this thing, maybe they could have rigged up one of the sound boxes from those stupid talking cards, they only cost a few cents and they could have had some ethereal voice instructing you how to open the box, you know, like you’d get in the game. Or at very least dye the paper brown and make it look like parchment or something.

Inside under all you see is the DVD sized hard cover art-book, pretty standard fare for a CE these days. I would have liked if they had made the book a bit larger since they weren’t actually constrained to the standard dimensions of a DVD. Again I’d like to reference Bioshock 2 Special Edition which included a full size art-book like what you’d buy in a store as a stand alone product. This is really a nit-pick compared to the rest of the un-boxing experience. I can hardly complain about a hard bound art-book it looks nice, and it’s got some good content. I should also note that the inside of Pandora’s Box is lined with felt which is a really nice touch and probably the best feature of the box next to the design details on the outside.

Removing the art-book it’s pretty obvious that the box has a false bottom, it seems to occupy nearly the bottom half of the box and where it’s made of light plastic there’s no way it’s made of thick plastic.  I think it would have behooved them to ad some small weights to the box this would have completely changed the impression it gives off. If you’ve ever held a Staples Easy Button, even though it’s made of plastic, it has some heft to it and feels like a high quality product. That’s because they added some small weights to the inside. They do this with a lot of devices, computer mouses, and home phones, etc.

The game case is nothing special, it actually looks just like a regular edition. I don’t see anything else in the box anywhere, looking at the back of the case I notice it states “NOT FOR RESALE” where the UPC would normally be so I crack open the plastic to have a look at the content inside.

Inside there is the single game disc and an instruction manual, the only item that makes this special is a folded DLC content card with 3 codes.

This, in my opinion, was the turd flavored icing on an already disappointing cake.  I can understand in-game content getting a DLC code, that’s fine. I personally don’t like DLC codes in CEs since I feel it forces you to choose between enjoying your CE or retaining it’s value, but I can understand it for in-game-content.

This is the PS3 though, there’s no reason to make you download the making-of documentary, we have a blu-ray player, put it on a blu-ray disc, or shove it on the game disc, it can’t be that large, and if it is, that’s all the more reason to not make your players waste hard drive space and bandwidth downloading the thing.

Having the soundtrack as downloadable content is just a straight up kick in the balls. how hard would it have been for them to include a cheap CD with a cheap jewel case, or eve put a disc flap in the game case and stick it on there. CDs cost pennies  to produce and it gives your collectors the freedom to use the music in whatever way is most convenient to them. I have a number of game soundtracks that have found themselves in regular rotation with the CD player in my car, Grand Theft Auto IV, Getting Up, and others. Do they really expect me to sit in my home theater room burning my projector lamp, racking up my electrical bill power the PS3 and all my other home theater equipment, to listen to the games music? If I wanted to listen to the games music in front of my PS3, I’d play the damn game. Again they could have at least put this on the game disc in a super high quality surround sound audio format so we could at least enjoy that aspect of it.

Final Impression:
I’m rather torn on this one, the un-boxing was completely uninspired, the art-book was run of the mill, and the game case itself is nothing more than the regular edition of the game. The biggest disappointment is that Pandora’s Box is essentially empty beyond that with the rest of the content being provided by way of DLC code. The best part though is that Pandora’s Box looks nice, and will make a nice addition to any collector’s display case, although it does feel cheap once you pick it up.

I don’t think I’ll be cashing in any of the DLC codes though, the reason being is that this is a popular game and stock of the Ultimate Edition was actually limited, so keeping that intact will preserve the value, besides I can download the game music in a more friendly format elsewhere anyway.

Not content with having these be exclusive to the buyers paying a premium for the CE releases the Soundtrack is available for purchase right now for about $6. Of course right now you can only buy the 6-track EP which is significantly shorter than the full length album that comes with the CE, but content is content. At least European collectors get their money’s worth with the inclusion of the first two God of War games. Then again the “God of War Collection” hasn’t been released in Europe and I’ve been enjoying my copy here in the US for some time now.

Here’s hoping Pandoras Box is as pretty in person as it looks in the pictures.

The GOTY edition will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3  in Europe on March 26th at a price of £39.99

Unfortunately there will be no special case art, simply black plastic like the normal edition, also disappointing is that the console will include the regular edition of the game rather than the Collector’s Edition that is also slated for release.

This bundle will be released along side the regular and collectors edition of the game on April 13th, at a price of $399, which is a pretty good deal when you consider it will include a $60 game, a $60 controller and an extra 130GB worth of hard drive space over the regular $299 Elite console.

Thanks for pre-ordering Heavy Rain Special Edition.

Sony have reported to us that there has unfortunately been a last-minute technical delay to the Heavy Rain official soundtrack, meaning that customers who have purchased the Heavy Rain Special Edition will not be able to download the Soundtrack until 4th March 2010. Sony recommend that you wait until this date to redeem your Special Edition voucher code which is in the game box – you’ll then receive all the Special Edition content in one batch.

However, if you choose to redeem your voucher code immediately for the other downloadable content, you won’t be able to receive the official soundtrack nor will you be able to use the same code to redeem the soundtrack on 4th March 2010. Therefore, you’ll need the following code to enable you to download the soundtrack from 4th March 2010.

So there you have it, if you use the code before March 4th you’ll miss out on some of the content, they’re not really clear on what method of recourse you have if you’ve already used your code. If you’re one of the people who already used the code and missed out let us know.

A 2K forum poster holding a random blacklight session with his friends discovered scrawled secret messages on the three BioShock 2 posters that were packed in his special edition. Creepy!

As proof, another 2K forum-goer posted these images, along with a video that can be found at PhotoBucket.

Due to a delay by the publisher, this content will not be available for download until Thursday, March 4, 2010.

Its not clear if the content codes will still be distributed normally but not be available for download until a later date, or if buyers will have to go back to the store to pick them up after the fact.

According to an article on VG247, this delay does not effect European gamers who purchase the Collector’s Edition though HMV.

“Anyone who has pre-ordered, or buys the special edition from HMV, will be able to download it from day one as promised,” a Sony rep told us.

“Other European territories gave the first Chronicle away via other means, and they will also get it day one.”

For anyone who hasn’t pre-ordered or won’t be getting the special edition, a date for the public PSN release of Chronicles’ initial episode is yet to be decided.

This page is for AvP Hunter’s Pack customers in the North American region only.

It has come to our attention that some of the exclusive Facehugger models included in the Aliens Vs Predator Hunter Edition have suffered damage in transit to North American retail.

We apologize for any inconvenience and are happy to provide replacements for any customers who received damaged products. Please fill out the following information so we can confirm your purchase. We will then contact you via email with instructions on how to receive a replacement Facehugger collectable.

I picked up my copy yesterday but I haven’t yet had a chance to unbox it.

Anyone in the CEo community end up with a fragile face hugger?